Gary R. W. Slater

My recent experience with this attorney has given me great cause to warn others who may now be seeking legal advice for a divorce situation. While Mr. Slater is a very nice fellow, the way he handled my case was appalling. Though he was very confident that our case for a positive child support sett...lement was strong, he did not present himself very well in court. Mr. Slater was immediately knocked off kilter by my wife's attorney who came well prepared and was well spoken. Clearly, Mr. Slater was caught off guard right from the start, and never really regained his footing. Upon conclusion of the hearing, Mr. Slater informed me that I should expect to pay somewhere between $450 and $500 per month for child support. When I was actually informed later that day (by my ex) that I now owed $750 per month in child support, I immediately phoned Mr. Slater to investigate. Mr. Slater then informed me that the $750 per month figure was correct, and his initial estimate was off because of the following two reasons. First, Mr. Slater admitted that he had used the wrong worksheet to calculate the payment (he used the worksheet for a younger child, and my daughter was 18.) He also explained that he'd forgotten to add the medical insurance component to the payment. As Mr. Slater has been practicing family law for quite some time, I was quite bewildered as to why he would make such seeming amateurish errors. After the results of the hearing, I expressed to Mr. Slater that I was having some serious concerns. In fact, I wanted to sit down with him and discuss what had taken place. Before I could set an actual meeting, Mr. Slater sent me a series of e-mails stating that I should consider alternate counsel. When I asked him why he thought I should consider retaining a different attorney, he replied that he could not represent a client who may no longer have confidence in him. A curious response indeed. Since then, I did retain a new lawyer and the process continues as I write this. In explaining the situation to my new attorney, however, she was quite taken aback (to say the least) at the way Mr. Slater handled my case. My wife's attorney also indicated to my new lawyer that she didn't think Mr. Slater did a very good job either. Imagine the feeling (during a child support hearing) to be wishing that you had retained your wife's lawyer, and not the one who was supposed to be working for you. There is another factor I should point out. Mr. Slater is actually battling some form of cancer at this time, and is currently receiving chemo therapy treatment. This does not automatically make him a bad choice, but he never bothered to disclose his battle with cancer to me when I initially hooked up with him and chose to retain him. I don't doubt that Gary Slater was an excellent attorney in his prime, but I fear that his current condition is diverting his attention from his work. Anyway, long story short, he burned through $3,500 of my $4,000 retainer, and if anything, muddied the waters even further. Now I have an even further uphill battle if I'm to come out of this with any kind of decent result. Do yourself a great favor, and look for someone who's got his eye more on the prize.

He didn't have any compassion, he was never available, he didn't explain, never had time, he would say something and next visit changed it, he was short to rude, he would not listen to me, he made fun of me after a hard marriage of 42 yrs, it was a bad experience all together. He charged Lot f...oe doing almost nothing in my case. Always Always in a hurry. Just a Real Bad experience.